Long distance's Sole Sisters cross the finish line

Danna Brookman, from left, Julie Ditsworth, Shari Lara and Andrea Barber pose with their medals upon completion of the Beach Cities Challenge on Sunday. BRIAN WHITEHEAD, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Just as they were about to cross the finish line of the Surf City USA Marathon and Half Marathon in Huntington Beach on Sunday afternoon, the "Sole Sisters" – wearing their baby blue team tank tops – joined hands and crossed the finish line together.

For the casual onlooker, the excitement and joy the group displayed simply stemmed from the completion of a grueling physical task.

And while they were celebrating finishing the 13.1 mile course, crossing the finish line on Sunday was the culmination of a much longer journey.

The Sole Sisters

On Jan. 24, 2012, Julie Ditsworth, 38, and Shari Lara – friends since their senior year at Esperanza High (Class of 1992) – met up to celebrate Shari's 38th birthday. During the dinner, Ditsworth pitched the idea of running a half marathon.

"I just threw it out to her and said, 'This is on my bucket list, would you ever want to do a half (marathon)?'" Ditsworth recalled. "She just kind of looked at me, and I think the next day, she was on a treadmill."

Later that same week, Ditsworth sat with Andrea Barber, 36, and Danna Brookman, 40, at their sons' basketball game, when Barber brought up the Beach Cities Challenge – a series of three marathons run along different parts of the Pacific Coast Highway. As the rules state, the Orange County, Long Beach and Surf City marathons or half marathons must be completed consecutively within one calendar year.

By the end of the game, all three women agreed to complete the challenge, as did Lara.

The next step?

"We're women, so we have to have matching shirts," Barber said. "So it started with, 'Well, what color, what shade?'"

The group chose baby blue tank tops and took them in to have a logo imprinted on the front – a shoe with "13.1" embroidered inside it.

All that was left was to settle on a team name. Because the logo looked like the sole of a shoe, the group decided on "Sole Sisters."

It was just over three months after they'd agreed upon completing the challenge that the group successfully ran the OC Half Marathon.

Unfortunately, the joy of finishing their first half marathon was short-lived.

A New Normal

Even with an extensive family history of breast cancer – both her mother and father were diagnosed, along with six of her father's siblings – Lara, a mammography tech for the last 12 years, truly believed she would be the one exception.

"You kind of hope you're going to dodge the bullet somehow," she said.

Upon discovering a lump on her breast in late July, Lara – a mother of two – visited her doctor the following day to undergo an ultrasound, an MRI and a biopsy.

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